A Romanian official said divisive internet personality Andrew Tate has won an appeal to replace his months in prison with house arrest while investigations into possible organized crime and human trafficking are ongoing
From
STEPHEN McGRATH AND VADIM GHIRDA Associated Press
Mar 31, 2023 3:07pm ET
• 3 minutes reading time
BUCHAREST, Romania — Andrew Tate, the divisive internet personality who spent months in a Romanian prison on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking, has won an appeal to replace his detention with house arrest, an official said on Friday.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Tate’s appeal challenging a judge’s decision last week to extend his arrest for a fourth time by 30 days, said Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT.
Tate, 36, a British-American national with 5.5 million Twitter followers, was originally arrested in late December along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in Romania’s capital, Bucharest.
All four won an appeal on Friday and will remain under house arrest until April 29, Bolla said. None of the four have been formally charged. The court ruled in favor of her immediate release. Prosecutors cannot appeal the appeals court’s final decision, Bolla added.
As the brothers left the Bucharest detention center late Friday, Tristan Tate told a throng of reporters that “the judges made the right decision today.”
“I respect what they have done for me and they will be vindicated in their decision because I am an innocent man and I can’t wait to prove it,” he said.
Some Tate supporters outside the facility chanted “Top-G, Top-G,” using a popular nickname that many of Andrew Tate’s fans refer to him.
Later, standing outside what is believed to be the Tate brothers’ home near the capital, Andrew Tate said he wanted to thank the judges “who listened to us today because they were very attentive and listened to us and released us. ”
“I have no grudges in my heart against the country of Romania or anyone else,” he said. “I just believe in the truth… I truly believe that justice will be done in the end. There is a zero percent chance that I will be convicted for something I didn’t do.”
Tate, a professional kickboxer who has been based in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech. He has repeatedly claimed Romanian prosecutors have no evidence and claimed their case is a “political” conspiracy to silence him.
DIICOT said in a statement following the December arrests that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were allegedly subjected to “acts of physical violence and psychological coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said the victims were lured with pretenses of love and were later intimidated, monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the criminal group’s financial gain.
In January, Romanian authorities entered a compound owned by the Tate brothers near Bucharest and towed away a fleet of luxury cars, including a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari and a Porsche. They said they seized an estimated $3.9 million worth of assets.
Prosecutors said if they can prove the owners of the cars made money from illegal activities such as human trafficking, the assets would be used to help cover the costs of the investigation and compensate victims. Tate unsuccessfully appealed the confiscation of assets.
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Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania.